Under Philippine law the Secretary for Labor has power to assume jurisdiction
over labor disputes when the national interest is at stake. Labor Secretary
Patricia Sto. Tomas did just that on tuesday, 16 November 2004 when she sent
in the police and the military to enforce a return-to-work order upon the
workers of the Cojuangco family's most prized possession - Hacienda Luisita in
Tarlac Province. The result was a bloody massacre in which seven died
including two children.

THE STRIKE of Hacienda Luisita farm and mill workers turned bloody when
elements of the PNP Central Luzon Regional Command and 69th Infantry Battalion
opened fire at striking farm and sugar workers blocking the main gate of
Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT).

Initial reports of the United Luisita Workers' Union (ULWU) and Central
Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) said that the violent dispersal took place from 3:17
to approximately 5 o'clock in the afternoon. They were dispersed by the
elements of PNP [Philippine National Police] and Philippine Army, numbering
roughly to 200 to 300. They were brought at the central by 12 six-by-six army
trucks, accompanied by 2 armored personnel carriers.

The government elements first bombarded the mob with watercannons, smoke
grenades and tear gas, subsequently, opened fire at the farmworkers, killing
several of the helpless strikers. Initial details confirmed 4 dead, identified
as Boy Verzola, Jun David, Neng Manalo, and a certain Sosa, all residents of
Bgy. Balite, a barrio within the Hacienda Luisita.

Moreover, the number of dead is increasing, as of now, ULWU and CATLU have
confirmed that 7 have been killed, including 2 children. Along with this, 26
were wounded and as many as 170 have been arrested. It is believed that more
are critical at several hospitals, because the provincial hospital was not
able to accommodate all of the wounded farmworkers.

Even after the said dispersal, government elements conducted manhunt
operations, searching for the leaders and supporters belonging from other
places. The president of the ULWU, Rene "Boyet" Galang, relayed that he was
unable to rush back to the other strikers because the police and military are
looking for him at the vicinity.

The Hacienda Luisita case has been the acid test of the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP), former president Cory Aquino's cornerstone program.
However, the hacienda's sugar lands were not handed over to farmworker-beneficiaries,
instead, they were given "stocks" of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc., supposedly
entitling them with 33% of the total stocks. Thus, the Cojuangcos maintained
control of the 6,500-hectare lands through the Stock Distribution Option (SDO)
provision of CARP.

Recently, farmworkers have been protesting against the declining man-days
work, depriving them of their source of income. They also account that the
lands should have been distributed long ago, since, Jose Cojuangco, Sr. never
paid for the acquisition of the lands. The BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas/Central
Bank of the Philippines] and GSIS [Government Service Insurance System] paid
for the lands with the condition that these were to be distributed to
legitimate small planters as part then of the government's social justice
program in 1957. As these were paid for by the people's money, the Cojuangcos
should have no little rights of the lands, thus, should be distributed to the
farmworkers.

The strike began at noon of November 6, with the farm and mill workers calling
for the implementation of the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agreement], wage
increase and 2-month gratuity pay for long-time farmworkers and reinstatement
of retrenched farmworker-beneficiaries. In addition, they are calling for the
junking of the SDO and the moratorium of land use conversion, as 500 hectares
were already converted by the HLI management without farmworker-beneficiaries
consultation. #